The film is based on director Joseph Kosinski’s own unpublished novel.

    It’s 2077, exactly 60 years after alien* invaders called Scavengers* (or “Scavs”) wiped out* the moon before setting their sights on the earth’s resources.

    Though mankind “won” the war against the Scavs, the nuclear weapons required to do so — combined with natural disasters brought on by the moon’s destruction — killed off much of the population and left the planet uninhabitable*. Those humans who did survive live in a space station until they can colonize* elsewhere.

    Enter Jack (Tom Cruise) and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are a couple living in a home in the clouds.

    Their official duty is to protect the machines drawing precious water from the seas, mainly by ensuring that the unmanned drones* intended to suppress* the Scavs remain online.

    Though his memory of the war has been erased, Jack dreams of a woman (Olga Kurylenko) from a distant past who reappears when a NASA capsule* crashes and causes him to rethink his mission.

    There’s a faintly political message about drone warfare, but for all its hard sci-fi prophecy*, the film advocates* mainly for an earthy lifestyle of organic vegetables and more time in the great outdoors. In a film created in front of green screens and behind computer terminals, selling a message like that takes some nerve*.(SD-Agencies)